Fichte was the first of the classical German Idealist philosophers. Rejecting Kant's theory that reality is divided between the mind and unknowable external objects, Fichte claimed that reality is the undivided absolute ego, or will of God. Man and everything in the universe are ideas thought of by the absolute ego in order that it may become aware of itself. Man's duty, as part of the absolute ego, is to struggle freely to know himself. Fichte developed these theories in his Science of Knowledge (1794) and Vocation of Man (1800).
Fichte came into prominence by publishing a treatise that sympathized with Kant's views and won his favor. As a result, Fichte was made professor at the University of Jena in 1793, but gradually he began to criticize Kant, was charged with atheism, and resigned in 1799. He continued his lectures in Berlin, where the presence of Napoleon's occupation forces stirred him to publish the Addresses to the German Nation (1807). These works, which praised German superiority and urged the Germans to unite against the French, contributed greatly to the growth of German nationalism.
